﻿Go For a Jog, Go To Jail﻿

Go For a Jog, Go to JailThis is very scary. If you’re not afraid yet, America, be afraid now. Be very afraid. This is the new America we live in. Go out for a jog, go to jail. Don’t have ID on you? Go to jail. Defend yourself or try to run when someone grabs you from behind? Go to jail. There are a lot of things that twenty or even ten years ago I never would’ve believed would ever happen in the United States of America. Let’s add this to the list.An innocent girl, Amanda Jo Stephen, was out jogging. A couple of Austin, Texas police officers apparently had a sting set up, or some sort of jaywalking trap, similar to Barney Fife-style speed traps, supposedly because jaywalking was completely out of control in that area and lives were in danger. (Roll eyes here). Actually, calling it a “Barney Fife-style” speed trap would be an insult to Don Knotts and the character he portrayed. Barney was never this aggressive, overbearing, or high-handed.Allegedly, Amanda jay-jogged. That is, she must’ve run across the street against the law. As an avid runner, this is something I myself must’ve done a million times by now. Including probably a few hundred times while I lived in Austin. Thank goodness there were no rogue Austin police thugs around to arrest me for it.Amanda wore headphones and didn’t see or hear the cops. So one of the overweight jelly-bellies “wobbled” after her. With that descriptive phrase, I picture Danny DeVito playing the Penguin in ‘Batman Returns.’ The officer grabbed the girl from behind by the elbow. Now imagine if you’re a young woman out for a run, jogging down the street alone with headphones on and a stranger grabs you from behind. What are you going to do? She did. And she got manhandled and handcuffed for it. The cops called it “resisting arrest,” in some police Orwellian inside double-speak.At this point, the situation could’ve been resolved peacefully, with explanations by both sides. At least, I would hope so, but, then again, this is no longer the USA I grew up in. The cop kept Amanda handcuffed and on the ground, not letting her get up, and called for back up-even though the eyewitness said she was in no way resisting arrest, as if she ever did, or even could, now that she was handcuffed. She pleaded with the cop to just give her the ticket and let her go.I have known many police officers. Many are my friend. I’m nearly positive they would’ve listened to reason and reacted with understanding. But not these fine, upstanding Austin PD storm troopers. Eventually, more police arrived and the poor girl was hauled away to a waiting squad car, begging and screaming for someone to help her as she was swept away (I would call it kidnapped) by thuggish police officers, for the crime of jogging with headphones on. This is still the USA, right? Just checking.Isn’t Moochelle Obama big on physical fitness? What’s up with that, Moochelle? You try to get exercise and stay healthy and fit and you go to jail into this “transformed” America your husband has ushered in?

Here is the original blog post of the witness. http://chlorineoverdose.blogspot.com/2014/02/student-arrested-for-crossing-street.htmlIn this day and age of official oppression from Washington, DC, on down, I trust the word of the witness a hundred times more than I trust the word of the police chief of Austin, Texas.http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2014/02/20/woman-arrested-on-24th-street-after-crossing-intersectionHe says if it was him, Amanda would’ve gotten worse treatment. She was lucky the thuggish cops took it so easy on her. This is from the head guy, the guy in charge, the top cop. The arrogance and smugness of his statements fully reminded me of Obama himself, as he violates every law and the Constitution in running this country into the ground. With a Napoleon like this police chief in charge, is it any wonder his officers feel free to manhandle obviously unarmed, and unable to resist, young women to the ground and then arrest them for literally running across the street with headphones and without ID? Just as this is no longer the United States of American that I knew, loved, and grew up in, this is no longer the Austin, Texas I once loved and lived in. Not anymore. I’m now afraid to go there because I might accidentally cross the street in the wrong place, or spit on the sidewalk or something, and get handcuffed and arrested. Great job on promoting tourism, Austin!

This outrages me not only because it is official police oppression, but also because it could very easily be me. It hit very close to home. I run. I love the sport. I don’t run with ID either. My mom tells me I need to, but that is just in case I get hit by a car or something and they’ll know who I am at the hospital, not in case I get arrested for running across the street. I sympathize with the girl. When I run, I think. A lot. About a lot of things. My mind goes to town and is often a million miles away. It is great therapy and a great way to relieve stress. Oftentimes, when you get in the zone, you are not always aware of everything around you. So it is not only possible, it is almost certain that Amanda did not hear the cop behind her and had no idea who was grabbing her elbow—something a cop of even modest intelligence should’ve easily been able to ascertain. But, judging by the pictures of these cops and the few extra pounds of weight they carry around their waists (and I’m not talking about their equipment belt), they probably have no idea of the funk you can get in when running long distance. Amanda was probably running at a slow, long-distance pace and the lard-butt cop couldn’t keep up with her, so he thought she was fleeing.If this was my daughter that was so accosted by out of control roguish police thugs, I would want to do downtown and bust some heads. Of course, I would never do it, because then I would go to jail, too. Instead, I would rely on the next best thing. A lawyer. I would file so many suits against this city and its oppressive police force, the lawyer would be able to buy a second house.Don’t get me wrong. Normally I support the police, because most of those I’ve known have been real police officers, who are courteous, professional, polite, and understanding. Maybe I’ve just been lucky. If there was a question, I would give the benefit of the doubt to the police. But lately, there have been too many stories like this, and this one can easily be verified by watching the video and reading the account of the unbiased witness.With help from, if not directly due to, the Obama regime, the US is slowly but surely sliding into a police state. To ensure and prolong their rule, Liberals on the Left are bypassing Posse Comitatus by militarizing the police. Who needs to use a standing army inside your borders to enforce your rule when all you have to do is convert an existing police into a paramilitary organization? It is being done now, right before our very eyes. In just the last handful of years it has become increasingly difficult to tell the difference between a uniformed cop and a uniformed soldier. On a regular basis, local police use military grade weapons, gear, and tactics, even in small, tiny towns that criminals and terrorists aren’t even aware of. They might claim it is to protect us from these criminals and terrorists armed with similar weapons, but some people wonder if it is to institute martial law some day. Maybe sooner than we think.I now live in South Florida and here I have seen with my own eyes police officers in uniforms that look as if they just stepped off the front lines in Iraq or Afghanistan, even down to the tan or olive drab fatigues. I’ve even seen with my own eyes a police APC driving down the street in regular everyday traffic that looked like it just drove off the battlefield. My first thought was that it was an Army or National Guard vehicle being moved to a new base. But it said in clear letters across it, POLICE. And it was black. The color of the Gestapo. It was scary.My thought was not, ‘Gee, I’m glad the cops around here have an armored vehicle to protect me with!’ Instead it was, ‘Am I now in the Twilight Zone where my local police force feels the need to drive around town in a vehicle that would look just as at home on the plains of Europe in WWII or in a Mad Max movie? Am I in Baghdad or Fort Lauderdale?’The Police State is not only coming, people, it is already here.Be afraid. Be very afraid.But most importantly, be careful. And don’t jog across the street with headphones on and no ID. In Austin, Texas, they take you to jail for that.